CELTIC legend Paul McStay has joined forces with Tom Rogic in Sydney, Australia as both men offered their support to a number of players on the club’s International Partnership Programme.

The Hoops' Wizard of Aus, who has been back home on international duty, took time out of his busy schedule to meet The Maestro and a group of staff and lucky young players from partner club, Coogie White Tigers.

Celtic’s International Partnership programme, one of the biggest in world football, is designed to help clubs maximise their potential through coach and player education. Football development is a detailed and lengthy process and Celtic’s commitment is a long-term one to these clubs, which will see the benefit of in years to come.

Celtic legend, Paul McStay, who has lived in Australia for number of years, is now working with Celtic to identify suitable partner clubs for the club.

The club's Partnership Programme allows overseas clubs and schools to become an official Club Partner of Celtic Football Club and receive benefits such as:

- Access to academy standard on-line Coaching Curriculum.

- An Opportunity for partner clubs to visit Celtic FC.

- Visits from Celtic FC coaches to partner club.

- Opportunity for players at partner club to attend official Celtic FC coaching in Glasgow.

- Opportunity to host Celtic FC soccer camps/clinics.

- Partner clubs will also have the opportunity for teams to travel to Celtic FC to take part in our team tour experience.

Tom Rogic, one of Celtic’s key figures and a pivotal player for the Socceroos, was delighted to be part of this event and also delighted to meet The Maestro.

He told the official Celtic website: "It was fantastic to meet up with Paul in Sydney. He's someone who gave so much to Celtic as a player, a real icon of the club and it is great that he's now lending his experience and expertise to the club again in our work in Australia.

"It was great also to meet the staff and players from the White Tigers, I know that they, like to many others are really benefiting from their participation in the programme.

“I know how important the Partnership Programme has been to clubs in Australia. It has already been a great success and I'm sure it will continue to deliver great results across the country. Youth development is so important in a player’s journey, as it was to mine, and it would be great one day to see some of these young players from Australia running out at Celtic Park."

Already two youth players, Bryce Thew and Ashton Coombes from Redland United Football Club in Brisbane, recently got to spend a week with Celtic to train at the same venue as Socceroos, Tom Rogic and Daniel Arzani. Again all this is part of the Club Partnership Programme delivered by Celtic.

Celtic have doubled the number of clubs it works with in Australia in the last year due to the hard work of many, including Paul McStay, who knows more than anyway what it takes to be a top player.

In meeting up with Tom Rogic, Paul emphasised the uniqueness of what Celtic are trying to achieve both in Australia and across the globe with its 60+ partners:

He told the official club website: "Celtic is a club that has always had reputation for developing skilful players that like to play attacking football... it’s the 'Celtic Way' of playing the game.

"The club's aim is to share some of this invaluable football development knowledge with the wider football community here in Australia to support the great work already being delivered by the national federation, associations and clubs. It is nice to be involved with the club again by helping the with their work in Australia and hopefully it will continue to be of real benefit to Celtic and the Australian football community.

“In Tom Rogic, we have an outstanding ambassador for the Club in Australia, an exceptional footballer and someone I am sure many young players will look up to as an example of what can be achieved in football.”

Celtic has a world-renowned academy system that has produced 19 top young players to play in Europe’s elite competitions, as well as a further 178 who have successfully followed a professional career in the game. Celtic also have partnerships with clubs across, North America, throughout Ireland, parts of the Middle East and Europe, supporting clubs develop and learn to play the Celtic Way.

Support Us

If you have recently added us to your Adblock due to being automatically redirected, we think we've solved the issue and would appreciate if you added us to your Adblock Whitelist. We rely on ads to cover the costs of the site. Click here for instructions on how to do this.